Thank you for your inquiry about the expedition and this “Photographer and Travel Assistant” job offer.

My name is Daniel Rainsong. The first thing I need to tell you about this job is that the assignment goes from December 21, 2009 until January 3, 2010. So as you can see it covers over the Christmas and the New Years. If you cannot commit to the forgoing conditions (missing the holidays and being in Texas) this position may not be for you.

This time of year with a lot of leaves off the tree canopy there in Texas makes it an ideal time to see them and capture their pictures…[section missing]…nesting season; being more noisy (vocal) being easier to locate.

…some so-called birders, such as landscaper and gambler Daniel Rainsong, who claims to have photographed the bird, resort to harassment to assert their claims to this $50,000 prize. According to the current kerfuffle on the intert00bz, Rainsong apparently refuses to allow anyone to see his December 2009 photographs of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker until his “right of claim” (huh?) for this discovery is established (huh??). But despite the self-imposed veil of secrecy surrounding his supposed photographs, Rainsong is allegedly harassing professional ornithologists by filing “formal complaints” against them because (he claims) they refuse to accompany him on an extended search in the Sabine River basin in east Texas to “prove” the validity of his photograph(s). Which he won’t permit them to examine.

This new story (about another $10,000?) will raise questions about his IBW claims, unless he now releases the photographs in a timely matter, without fiscal demands.

Police said an Ames man stole more than $10,000 from his dependant mother’s savings after obtaining power of attorney over her.

Daniel D. Rainsong, 53, of 1916 Ferndale Ave., reportedly told police that his mother was investing in his lawn care company, “New Lawns,” and used her savings to pay for his own expenses rather than for her care.

Police said Rainsong’s mother is a dependent adult and legally unable to make the decision to invest in her son’s lawncare business.

According to court documents, Rainsong took power of attorney from his mother on Nov. 21, 2008, and within weeks drained her financial resources. The amount was stated at more than $10,000.

Rainsong also faces charges of theft for fraudulently using a blank personal check left with him by his father-in-law. According to court documents, the check was given to Rainsong to pay his mother’s medical and pharmacy bills, a cost which Rainsong allegedly said would have been less than $3,000.

After obtaining power of attorney over his mother, Rainsong wrote out the personal check for $15,000 and deposited it in his mother’s account, which he then accessed to pay for his own expenses.

Rainsong faces two counts of first-degree theft, a class C felony, and one count of dependent adult abuse, a class D felony.

A preliminary hearing has been set in the case for Tuesday, Feb. 23, in Nevada.

About Loren ColemanLoren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013.

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Although the allegations against Mr. Rainsong do not necessarily falsify his claim of photographing the IBW, said (alleged) actions certainly suggest a distinct lack of character that one cannot entirely overlook – dishonest is as dishonest does, so to speak.

I agree that Mr. Rainsong’s best course of action, aside from REIMBURSING HIS MOTHER(!), would be to release the evidence immediately, with no financial strings attached, and let the pictures speak for themselves.

Until/unless the pall of monetary gain is removed, one cannot be entirely sure of of his underlying intentions.

Vs? Reading a bit to much into my statement Loren, I’m not against any of you. Just fed-up with con men milking cyrpto for fame and fortune. Cons and hoaxes are a waste of bandwith to me. Hows about some news about the NJ river Dolphins?

Question? Do red headed woodpeckers have the crest that he ivory billed redpecker does? Do any other members of the woodpecker family have this red crest? Just asking. I remeber as a child that my grandfather had some woodpeckers near his house that had red crest, but I am not sure what type they were. He always said it was not allowed to kill them. He was Native American and called them Indian Woodpeckers.

To me, it looks like he was trying to come up some quick cash to cover his a**, knowing that the law was after him and thought that the reward would cover the money he stole. I live in the east Texas piney-woods Big Thicket and see the pileated woodpecker almost every day at its dead pine tree in my front yard. It is not a scared of me at all. Before hurricane Ike another dead pine in my yard always had a pair. But at the dead pine food tree in the front yard, there only a single bird. I truely hope that the IBW is out there but I fear it has passed on with all the other animals that mankind did not have room for in the quest to make monetary use of the “useless” waste bottomlands.

Thanks Alton. I am quite sure they were Pileated after looking at the picture, but I will be going home in a few months, and I will take my camera just in case. If I see one I will snap a picture. I love seeing all the unique birds this country has. Just last summer I saw my first painted bunting, it was truly exhilerating.